


The One In Which Arthur Wears His Own Face

by Patterfly



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Attempt at Humor, Boys In Love, Fluff, Gen, Humor, M/M, Masks, Mutual Pining, POV Arthur, Pining, Pre-Slash, or at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-29 17:30:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19404892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Patterfly/pseuds/Patterfly
Summary: Arthur is a prince and wishes to go to the city just like a normal person. Merlin has an idea.





	The One In Which Arthur Wears His Own Face

„You can’t be serious.” Arthur says, incredulous. He looks at Merlin’s ridiculously earnest face with astonishment. “This is the worst idea I ever heard of.”

“No, listen, it’s brilliant!” He exclaims excited “If you wear this no one could seriously think that you are real Prince Arthur.”

Arthur sighs, exaggerated.

“You mean” he starts, gathering his patience. “that if I wear a mask of _myself,_ then no one will figure out that it’s actually _me?_ ” he pushes as much sarcasm in this sentence as he can, so even Merlin can understand how impossible his idea is. “This is just laughable!”

Sometimes he wonders how Merlin can be real. He is the most extraordinary person The Prince ever met. He always manages to surprise him somehow. Arthur can’t never predict what new absurd idea Merlin will get. It is infuriating and because of that he forgot what ‘peace and quiet’ means because thanks to his servant he never has a moment for himself anymore.

He doesn’t know why he didn’t fire him yet. Days were so much calmer when Merlin wasn’t around. It was simple routine. His duties as a Prince were straightforward, no surprises, no one was waking him in the mornings with the astounding manner (from yelling with singing voice some ridiculous quotes, through playing with real instruments most annoying melodies _ever_ to being licked in the face by Merlin’s dog which he somehow smuggled to the palace), no one was stealing his food from his own plate (“I didn’t eat this sandwich, Arthur, I swear!” “So, where it is?” “It had to, umm... you must have eat it.” “There are fragments of the crumbs on your mouth, _Mer_ lin!”), no one was messing up his clothes (“Merlin, why this shirt is pink?” “Um, because... you look nice in pink?” “You washed my shirts with your neckerchief again, didn’t you?” “I swear, I don’t know how it get there!”).

But despite all of that Arthur still couldn’t even seriously contemplate firing Merlin. Or rather because of all of this. The thing is, that no matter how much he may be outwardly irritated and exasperated, he secretly enjoys Merlin’s weirdness. He makes his days exciting and in his company Arthur feels more alive than ever before. Not that he would ever admit it to Merlin.

“Exactly!” Merlin replies enthusiastic and Arthur seriously starts to contemplate, not for the first time, if Merlin was dropped on the head as a babe. It would explain so many things. “This is _laughable._ Think about this. No one would seriously think that real Prince Arthur was parading on the city with mask of his own face. Everyone would just laugh at the idea. You know, hiding in plain sight?”

Arthur was flabbergasted, because this nonsensical idea actually starts to make sense to him and it is really worrisome thought. Something has to be wrong with him if he considers any of Merlin’s antics as clever.

Merlin seeing that Arthur does not immediately voices any more protests and even starts seriously mulish this over (how it could come to that?) flashes him one of his most brilliant smiles and that makes Arthur baffled for another reason entirely.

“See? It makes sense.”

“It doesn’t have any sense and you know it.”

“But it has sense in a sense how much it doesn’t have sense. In this sense it has perfect sense.”

Arthur stares at him dumbly for a moment.

“What you just...”

“I _mean_ ” Merlin begins forcefully but then his face softness and he looks at him with warm gaze. “Just trust me, okay?”

And it’s then when all Arthur’s reserve turns to dust in the snap of fingers. He may make fun of Merlin, insult him daily and shake head at his marvellous ideas but no matter what, Merlin never betrayed his trust in any way. At the first days of his employment Arthur treated him terribly and bullied him in a way that he is now deeply ashamed of but even then Merlin didn’t badmouth him with other servants. The opposite is true, actually. He once overheard him _defending_ him when some of palace staff were gossiping of his sexual preferences (he is openly bisexual but was only with women before). From this point Arthur stopped beening such a bully and started to treat Merlin a little better.

From then they only grew closer. In the years when they knew each other Arthur told Merlin things that he never said to anyone else before, his deepest fears and dreams and Merlin never abused his trust. He showed his immense support and not once gave him some encouraging words or even a sound advice.

This trust is the reason he now walks through streets of London wearing mask of his own face and feeling more ridiculous and tense with each and every step.

What came to him to agree to this? Did he lose his mind? Whose idea it was to listen to Merlin of all people? It is will be disaster. At any moment now someone will notice him and take of this stupid, paper mask and he will be laugh stock for all of Britain. His father will be so disappointed. And there will be no shifting all the blame to Merlin because Arthur in some worrisome display of stupidity _agreed_ to this and put on the mask of his own free will.

People keep walking past them and almost all of them look at him with incredulity or amusement. But even if no one yet point him with finger and shouted ‘It’s the Prince Arthur wearing mask of himself like a moron!’ with every passed citizen he fears more and more that someone eventually will.

They get into Trafalgar Square and amount of people there makes Arthur freeze in place. There is no way he will get there with this stupid piece of paper on his face.

“Merlin, this is awful idea. We’re going back.” He announces and then turns around expecting Merlin to go with him without protest.

Of course because it would be too naive to think that his servant could follow one simple order it’s isn’t the thing that is actually happening. Instead, Merlin grabs his forearm effectively stopping him from going home to safety of his chambers and burning this cursed mask to an ash.

“Wait!” Merlin still not letting go of his hand circles him and blocks his way back. “Why you want to go back already? This really works, no one recognized you yet.”

“The key word is ‘yet’, Merlin.” He snarls and snatches his arm from his grip more to make a point than because he didn’t enjoy the contact. “Any of those people can recognize me and then I will be in the papers and all over internet for everyone to laugh at me.”

“No one will recognize you! We were talking about this.”

“Yes, we did and it was very stupid of me to agree to your idiotic plan.”

“But we weren’t here even half an hour. You wanted to go to the walk through the street anonymous and now you have it!”

It was true. Yesterday he may have say to Merlin that he wishes to see with his own eyes how London looks when he isn’t centre of attention and how his people fare when they think that no one important is looking. As a future king he feels that he should know those stuffs. But there was one more reason he wanted to do this. He wanted for once feel normal. He wanted to go to the city and have fun just like other people his age.

“It doesn’t matter now. It was stupid of me. I won’t ever be anonymous and it’s the best if I can just accept it.”

After this, he rounds Merlin and strides in the direction of The Palace. Feeling embarrassed he berates himself for even trying to follow through this moronic idea.

But once again Merlin exposes his lack of regard for following orders and takes his hand. The act in itself makes Arthur stop in place. Merlin looks at him with determined expression and Arthur just knows that he will not like what comes next.

“No one will recognize you and I will prove it. Just trust me.”

Then he turns around and squeezes his hand tighter as if he feared that Arthur will run away. After what he does next Arthur knows that his concerns weren’t unfounded.

“WHO WANTS A PHOTO WITH THE REAL PRINCE ARTHUR?!” He screams with such a volume that makes Arthur jump and is without a doubt heard by every person in the Trafalgar Square.

“ _What do you think you doing?_ ” Arthur hisses with raising panic. All those people now look straight at him and some of them even start to tread in their direction.

With raving nerves he clutches Merlin’s hand so thigh that it’s surely has to be painful and he registers in some distant part of his mind that instead he should probably just run away until he has the chance.

“It’ll be okay, just trust me.” Merlin whispers, leaning a little into his space. It grounds him a tiny bit.

Then the first person approaches them. It’s a man seemingly in his late twenties. He has tattoos on his arms and piercing in his ear and nose. He looks at Arthur with wide smile.

“Wow, you really are Prince Arthur, aren’t you?” He laughs. Arthur’s impossibly tense. This is it. Someone recognized him. How long until all of Brittan will laugh at him?

Merlin snickers beside him. Arthur wants to punch him.

“Right? He looks exactly like him”

Arthur stares at him with confusion.

Their companion only nods.

“Yeah, it’s incredible. He even has similar physique.”

Merlin shots Arthur a smug smile. The bastard.

“So, you want a photo?”

“Sure.”

After the man got his phone and took photo staying uncomfortably close to him, Arthur relaxes a little. It wasn’t so bad. Maybe it won’t be an utter disaster after all?

Then Arthur notices that the line of at least dozen of people formed and he redefines this last statement. He’s _so_ going to kill Merlin when it is over.

Next comes to them a pair of teenage girls. One of them curtsies and the other laughs at her.

“Your highness.” Says the first one with mischief in her eyes. Arthur feels irritated. Bowing to him shouldn’t be a joke. He is their future king.

And then he remembers that they don’t know it and feels a little better.

“Do you want a photo or not?” He snaps. He wishes that it would be over already.

He realises his mistake when he sees their surprised expressions. Shit, his _voice_!

“Wow, you can even imitate the voice. It’s so cool!” She squeaks and almost jumps with excitement.

“Mary, what if it’s real _real_ Prince Arthur?” Second one asks. Arthur gulps. They look at each other for a moment with serious expressions and then burst with laughing.

Arthur relaxes. He can’t believe it, but Merlin was right. What now? The cows start dancing?

They take their photo and leave. Next person comes to them.

It’s goes and goes and with every person who failes to recognize him he feels more at ease. They often laugh and joke and with such loose atmosphere he really can’t remain tense anymore. He finds himself even enjoying this a little. Except for Merlin no one was behaving so relaxed around him for as long as he can remember. Now he feels as if he is part of something, like he belongs. He cracks a joke and when he receives a genuine laugh he feels lighter and carefree.

Merlin sometimes looks at him with a mixture of amusement and fondness and it makes something unfurl in his chest. He feels genuinely happy.

He has fun but with time it gets a little tiring. He makes fewer jokes and his ‘impression of Prince Arthur’ gets a little less enthusiastic. Merlin has to notice, because he calls quit to it much to disappointment of people still waiting in the line. He leads Arthur away from them and then The Prince notices that he is still holding Merlin’s hand. He blushes for once thankful for the presence of the mask.

Merlin also must have just notice their positions, because he drops his hand as if burned. He blushes bright red avoiding his gaze. Arthur feels bereft.

They walk a little without exchanging any words. Arthur clears his throat.

“So... it seems to be working after all.”

Merlin smiles smugly at him.

“I told you it would work.”

Arthur scoffs.

“Don’t be so smug about it. It was ridiculous to begin with and it’s really a miracle that it _did_ work.”

“Ha, admit it, you loved it!”

“I did not!”

“You did!” Merlin exclaims. “I saw how much fun you had. I should know that you would love to be centum of attention even if no one knows who you are.”

Arthur glares at him. It doesn’t get across because of this stupid mask but Merlin must know anyway because he bursts out laughing. Insolent idiot.

They walk some more, sometimes bickering and sometimes just in comfortable silence, through the streets of London and Arthur feels at peace. People still look at him funny but this doesn’t make him nervous anymore. He is safe. For the first time in his life he walks through the streets like any normal person and it feels amazing. He can’t help but smile.

He glances at Merlin’s still smug face and can’t help but be grateful for his friend. He hopes that one day he will be able to tell him how he feels about him.

Until then he will be happy to just bear with his strange behaviour and even stranger ideas. And he will love it only a little bit.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not great at making funny stuff so even if I didn't get a laugh from you I hope at least I made you smile :)
> 
> Please comment <3


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